Does he love me

"Does he love me" is the question people bring to the cards most often, and also the easiest one to ask badly. Three cards answer it honestly: what he feels, how serious it is, and what answer follows from those two.

It suits the case where feelings haven't been spoken, or have been spoken and the behaviour contradicts them. It doesn't suit the case where you already know and hope the cards will overrule you. And it doesn't answer "will we be together": in tarot, love and a shared future are different spreads.

What he feels is the emotional layer, without any measure of strength. Cups mean a living feeling; Wands mean attraction and interest, which a person can easily mistake for love; Swords mean attachment run through the head; Pentacles mean reliability and habit.

How serious it is is depth. Aces and Twos speak of a beginning, Tens and Major Arcana of something substantial, Pages and Knights of an infatuation that time hasn't tested yet.

The answer is the summary card, and it must be read together with the first two rather than instead of them. A simple rule: if the first two are warm and the third is static, the answer is "yes, he loves you, and nothing follows from it". That is a complete answer too, just not the one people come for.

Ask short and with a name: "does Dmitry love me". Don't add "really", "is it true that" or "even a little" — those words hand the spread a defensive frame, and any card will be read as "yes, but".

Feels — Knight of Cups. Seriousness — Two of Wands. Answer — the Moon. The reading: the feeling is there and it is romantic, but in depth it is still a choice of direction rather than a decision; the Moon as the answer means he hasn't worked it out himself. The honest answer: he doesn't know yet — and hurrying him won't help.